A Six-Pack of IPA (Interesting Points, Allegedly): Unwanted history for both Dockers and Eagles out of round 8

Unwanted history, part I There’s no shortage of historic numbers to pull out of Fremantle’s shocker against St Kilda. The stats were at their bleakest in the first half, where the Dockers produced the all-time worst scores-per-inside-50 ratio of any team in any half – two scores from 23 entries at 8.7 per cent. It resulted in the lowest-ever score in the 2,260 halves of footy to have been held at Marvel Stadium since the venue’s opening in 2000. Freo also recorded new club lows for clearance differential (minus-28) and pre-clearance contested possession differential (minus-30) after being smashed through the middle. FREO’S TALE OF WOE *Clearance stats first recorded in 1998; contested possession and scores-per-inside-50 first recorded in 1999. Source: Champion Data Unwanted history, part II The current West Coast side and the current North Melbourne outfit are now responsible for the two worst 80-game stretches in the AFL/VFL for almost half a century. The Eagles have a 10-70 record in their past 80 matches, dating back to the final rounds of 2021, while the Roos are 9-71 in that time. You have to go all the way back to the Fitzroy sides of the mid-to-late 1960s for a comparable span of 80-game futility, where the Lions had a patch that included a 6-74 record, while the only other post World War II effort that compares is St Kilda’s 8-1-71 stretch from the late 1940s. Taking away the five combined wins from the five matches where West Coast and North Melbourne played one another, the two sides are a collective 14-136 against other opposition in almost four years of footy. Short break, long trip It’s a small sample size, but Collingwood will have to buck a growing trend this season if they’re to overcome Fremantle in Perth on Thursday. The Magpies will be the fifth side this year to play a game off a five-day break with interstate travel involved – and the previous four have all lost: Port Adelaide against Essendon, Adelaide against Geelong, Brisbane against Collingwood, and North Melbourne against Essendon. All four sides have been outscored in the final quarters of the aforementioned games, by an average of 14.3 points, in a sign that they’re running out of gas close to the finish line. Premiership reunion Liam Baker and Jack Graham will become just the sixth and seventh players in West Coast history to face a club they won a premiership with when the Eagles take on Richmond at the MCG. Only one has achieved success against their old club in their first meeting: Ex-Crow Chad Rintoul, who won his initial clash against his former squad in 1999. Rob Wiley fell short against Richmond in 1987, Sharrod Wellingham lost to Collingwood in 2013, Xavier Ellis couldn’t get past Hawthorn in 2014, and Lewis Jetta suffered a loss to Sydney in 2016. Sam Mitchell missed his sole chance to face the Hawks in his only Eagles season in 2017 due to an ankle injury. Goal Hamling! Having spent a decade in the AFL across three different clubs, Joel Hamling has at last hit the scoreboard. The 97-gamer was thrown forward in Sydney’s win over GWS and booted two behinds before finally finding the major opening. Entering the match, Hamling had been the lone premiership player to have never registered a score at any point in their AFL/VFL career since Carlton’s Barry Mulcair, who won a flag in 1970 among just 20 career games. It now leaves Hamling’s retired 2016 teammate Fletcher Roberts – who kicked two career behinds – as the only premiership player without a goal in the past half-century. Danger for David David Mundy’s three-year residence among the top dozen ballwinners in AFL/VFL history has sadly come to an end. During his superb final term to help Geelong eke past Collingwood, Patrick Dangerfield ticked past Mundy’s career tally of 8042 disposals to replace the Dockers great in 12th on the all-time list. The rejuvenated Steele Sidebottom (7911 disposals) and Mundy’s former teammate Lachie Neale (7667) are also in line to nudge him further down the list before season’s end.